Who are you and what are you currently working on?
I’m on the growth team at Bespoke Post, a cross-category men’s subscription/eCommerce brand. I manage our affiliate program, our paid social channels, and pretty much wherever else I’m needed!
How did you get started in affiliate marketing? What keeps you excited about it?
I actually started out on the platform side, working in business development at Impact Radius. After learning about the ecosystem as a whole, I spent a year actually working as an affiliate before moving into affiliate program management. What interests me so much about the affiliate space is how rapidly it changes, and how often brands underestimate it’s potential as a channel. What used to consist primarily of mommy bloggers and coupon sites has evolved to include influencers, mobile apps, and even B2B partnerships.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to a newbie affiliate marketer? And what is one piece of advice they should ignore?
I’d say talk to as many veterans in the space as possible. Affiliate marketing is all about relationship building, and there are nuances around how to keep partners engaged and building a healthy partnerships program that you simply can’t self-teach, no matter how many blogs you read.
Although the GeniusLink blog is a great place to start! I would say to ignore people who tell you that “affiliate” is a siloed channel and who try to pigeonhole you as an affiliate marketing specialist. The truth is that affiliate marketing intersects with the rest of your marketing mix. Good affiliate intersects with everything from SEO to PR, and it’s important to work cross-functionally.
What has been your favorite mistake? A mistake that in retrospect led to a great lesson and progress in your affiliate marketing?
Mistaking channel growth for success! There is a big difference between growing an affiliate program, and incrementally growing an affiliate program. Onboarding coupon sites that merely cannibalize your existing business, for example, might boost your numbers in the short-term but will hurt the success of your program in the long-run.
What is one piece of software or a web service that allows you to be more effective as an affiliate marketer?
I don’t know what I’d do without Impact’s Radius platform. It makes everything easier from internal communications to onboarding new partners, and the flexibility in reporting allows me to find any data point that I need with ease.
How do you continue to educate yourself as an affiliate marketer? What are some of your favorite resources for learning?
The #1 source of education for me is my colleagues and peers in the partnerships space. Beyond that, blogs from brands within the space (CJ Affiliate, Impact, FMTC, etc.) as well as the STM Forum are super helpful. I’m in a slack group for digital marketers called Online Geniuses that is a fountain of knowledge for me as well.
If people wanted to connect with you, where should we point them to?
Feel free to connect via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterczepiga